Massive floods due to extreme rainfall in Galați in the region of Western Moldavia in eastern Romania

Central Europe and Romania were paralysed by torrential rain and subsequent flooding at the weekend, with at least seven people dead in the region and several towns flooded.

Rescue efforts are underway from Wroclaw, Poland, to the Black Sea coast in Romania. Rain was expected to ease for the remainder of September 15 before resuming on the following day, before the skies clear for the rest of the week. Social media showed scenes of devastating flooding from across the region.

Heavy rain clouds have moved over the region from Italy after an extremely hot summer – likely supercharged by climate change–- accumulated enormous amounts of moisture in the air. Some locations in Poland and the Czech Republic have received several months’ worth of rain just since September 12.

Five people have died in the eastern Romanian region of Galati and authorities seek another two, while hundreds have lost their homes after severe floods hit rural areas beginning on Saturday, September 14. Galati County and Vaslui County to some extent were particularly hit by the floods. Several counties south of Carpathian Mountains (Hunedoara, Valcea, Arges) were also impacted.

There are areas where rainfall of 170 litres per square metres, the amount expected for three normal months, was registered in only 12 hours. 

Banulescu Street in Chisinau, Moldova.  Two women rescued after they were swept from under a car.

The water reached 1-1.5m in some villages, where thousands of homes (5,500-6,000 according to an approximate estimate) were severely damaged and hundreds of people are being hosted in ad-hoc camps erected by authorities. Some 25,000 homes in areas not directly hit by the floods were initially left without electricity. Until Sunday afternoon, however, the number of homes without electricity dropped to 11,000. 

The climax appears to have been reached on the night of Saturday to Sunday and the situation was gradually brought under control during Sunday, September 15 as the government sent the Ministry of Interior to organise rescue missions and camps for those left with no home. As of the evening of September 15, the  eastern part of the country was still under yellow (moderate) code alert with substantial rains expected.

The government will allocate funds from its reserves, “to help restore the houses and lives affected by the floods”, announced Minister of Finance Marcel Bolos. The lack of mandatory home insurance contracts and the lack of construction permits for hundreds of buildings erected in areas exposed to flood risks will perhaps be overlooked.

Three people were reported dead in Poland, where efforts are underway to flatten the flood wave along the Oder, Poland's second biggest river, flowing through major cities Opole and Wroclaw.

Evacuations started on September 14 in the most affected towns in southern and south-western Poland and continued throughout the night, in some cases with the support of the army. Some 1,600 people were evacuated from the Klodzko county alone near the Czech border.  

"Now, all that matters is help for people threatened by flooding and state action. Those who can, let them help, those who can't, let them not hinder. Politics must give way to solidarity,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X.

In Czechia, some 260,000 households were without electricity due to severe weather, energy companies CEZ and E.ON said.

 

The Szklarki Waterfall in Poland 140924 - Damian Paszkiewicz